By Abby Grafmyre
July 8, 2025
The Greater Denfeld Foundation (GDF) scholarship recipients are always learning new things. This profile continues the series of introducing our scholarship recipients and sharing the knowledge their educations brings them.
This profile dives into the interests and accomplishments of Per Johnson, who is double majoring in Physics and Mathematics, and has interesting information to share! He is a 2022 graduate of Denfeld High School and a soon-to-be senior at St. John’s University. He was awarded the Armond Hauge Scholarship.
His favorite part of studying Physics is the research he does during the school year. One of his favorite labs was an experiment with a piece of rubber that had bits of metal dispersed evenly throughout it, which allows electrons to quantum tunnel through when pressure is applied. Quantum tunneling is when a particle moves through a solid material when it otherwise would not.
His favorite part of studying Mathematics is the research he is doing this summer regarding how palindromes are built from groups (a set of numbers that have important properties). He is enjoying the challenge of discovering which groups create palindromes and which do not.
These majors will equip him to attend graduate school to earn a doctorate in Physics, with an ultimate goal of obtaining a research position that will allow him to work on new and exciting problems.
Per Johnson
Armond Hauge Recipient
“The GDF has allowed me to attend college and I am grateful to probably graduate debt free, thus placing me in a position to go on to graduate school without that pressure,” Johnson says.
In addition to his studies, Johnson has been a math tutor since his sophomore year and a physics lab teaching assistant since this year. Notably, he has been on the Dean’s List each semester since his freshman year and was inducted into the math honor society, Pi Mu Epsilon.
“St. John’s has been a wonderful atmosphere to support me,” he says. St. John’s University, with emphasis on the Physics and Mathematics departments, provides him with the tools needed to answer all of his questions. Even some of his general education courses, such as Science Ethics, have been interesting for him to explore.
This exploration has been aided with help from the Greater Denfeld Foundation. “The GDF has allowed me to attend college and I am grateful to probably graduate debt free, thus placing me in a position to go on to graduate school without that pressure,” Johnson says.
Since 1971, the Greater Denfeld Foundation has been dedicated to supporting Duluth Denfeld High School students by providing awards and scholarships for their post-secondary education expenses, along with donations to staff to ensure students have access to a valuable and enriching educational experience.
Abby Grafmyre is a Hauge Scholarship who attends UMD, majoring in English, Communication, and Journalism.